Texas Native Bees

Bees visit flowers for nectar or pollen and transfer pollen between plants. Bees play a key role in plant pollination.

Not all bees live in large colonies like honeybees. Most native bee species are solitary. Honey bees, brought to the American continent by Europeans, have been managed for honey production and crop pollination for hundreds of years. Of 20,000 native bee species in the world only six species produce honey. But some native bee species are being used for a much more important purpose – pollination services in farms and orchards. (Honeybee vs. native bee. Kathy Keatley Garvey, UC)

Female bees take pollen to their nests to make pollen balls or ‘bee bread’ for their developing young. Bees have complete metamorphosis with four developmental stages in their life cycle: egg – larva – pupa – adult. Bee Metamorphosis.jpg

Bees work hard to collect pollen and nectar but they share the fruits of their labor with us. ~30% of fruit, vegetable and nut crops depend on bee pollination to set fruit. So, every third bite of food that we take can be traced back to bee pollination!

Bee flight ranges depend to some extent on their body size which depends on the species. Most bees forage for food in the day but some are active at night. Bees that can see in dim light are called crepuscular bees.

Bees see in the visible as well as the ultraviolet light spectrum while humans see only in the visible light spectrum.

Three tiny Ocelli on top of this sweat bee’s head complement two large compound.

(USGS Native Bee Inventory Monitoring Lab)

We may see a colorful flower while bees see nectar guides (patterned speckles) on petals!

These flowers are seen with visible (left) and UV light (right). (Wikipedia.org)

What other senses do bees use to find nectar?

They smell with their antennae like this long-horned bee! (Sam Droege)

Generalist bees visit many plant groups for their pollen. Bumble bees shake their abdomens to ‘buzz’ pollen from flowers by ‘sonication’.